No man's land (1949)

Merleau-Ponty's political diagnosis of the 1947–49 bipolar conjuncture: the world has become a No man's land in which neither classical Marxism nor classical liberal capitalism applies. The USSR ≠ socialism (the proletariat is not the leading class but the beneficiary, with bureaucratic reflux); the USA ≠ classical capitalism (it is imperium — Marshall-Plan-financed economic dominance — rather than extractive impérialisme). Both lack a philosophy of history. The marxist axes (class struggle, world market, socialism-vs-capitalism) have been displaced by topographic and local factors (US-vs-USSR rivalry, English Labour socialism in empire-form, post-fascist conditions). MP's formula: "l'expérience de l'Inconnu dans l'histoire du monde" (NY Pensée politique p. 379).

The diagnosis is given in three converging articulations across the 1947–49 corpus: PPH (1947–48) [Aron] segment, Mexico II/III "Antinomies" (Feb–March 1949), and NY "La pensée politique et l'expérience du XXᵉ siècle" (March 1949) — with a fourth, less developed articulation in "Marxisme et Existentialisme" (1949–50?). It is the earliest articulation of what Adventures of the Dialectic (1955) will systematize — the chapter on Lukács, the chapter on Weber, the chapter on Sartre's "ultrabolshevism," and the chapter on the new liberalism are all anticipated here in compressed form.

Key Points

  • The two-power bipolarity is a category-error: "Au total 2 puissances principales: URSS qui ne représente pas socialisme, USA qui ne représente pas forme classique du capitalisme — ni forme libérale, ni forme impérialiste classique" (NY p. 379). Both terms misdescribe their referents.
  • Imperium vs. impérialisme: MP's distinction. Classical impérialisme is extractive (capital export, profit-oriented); the post-1947 US economic dominance is Imperium — financed by domestic taxation, oriented to European recovery, without expected return. "Mixte: il y a infiltrations impérialistes (monopole du fret). Mais la tendance générale est autre. Imperium, non impérialisme."
  • Class consciousness dissolves: where 1917 expected revolutionary internationalism, 1947–49 produces national socialism (English Labour, "socialisme d'empire"), proletarian solidarity with national-power (US), and disrupted class identification. "Diminution de conscience de classe."
  • Both sides lack a philosophy of history: "Ni d'un côté ni de l'autre, on n'a une philosophie de l'histoire par laquelle on se flatte de dominer en pensée l'avenir" (NY p. 380). The marxist orthodoxy has lost the philosophical articulation; liberal capitalism never had one.
  • The political response — three formulae: (1) "Appuyer sur démocratie effective" — not democratic-as-partisan but democratic-in-act (Mexico V); (2) "Attendre que l'incarnation redevienne possible" (Mexico V); (3) "Mouvement politique qui dépasse l'alternative en étant sans équivoque indépendant à l'égard des 2 forces, — et lié à éléments ouvriers de tous les pays" (Marxisme et Existentialisme p. 402).

Details

The structural diagnosis

The PPH [Aron] segment ends with the diagnosis (PPH p. 192):

"Lutte des classes prend forme URSS-USA. D'où résulte bouleversement de politique prolétarienne: collaboration de classe — attitude actuelle du P.C. Formes de révolutions non prolétariennes en Tchécoslovaquie, Yougoslavie, etc. D'où malaise: le détour dialectique sera-t-il suivi d'un retour à la Ligne primordiale? Si la situation présente s'accentue avec menace de guerre on va au-devant du chaos."

The Mexico II "Antinomie de la vie collective" extends this:

"Marxisme 'compromis' par l'URSS / libéralisme n'est plus proféré que du bout des lèvres par USA — Mystification. Que sera l'empire américain? — Inconnue du Plan Marshall — conservatisme de l'esprit séparé... Conclusions: pas de solution sur ce chemin, ni par victoire de l'un et de l'autre" (Mexico II pp. 305–306).

And the NY "Pensée politique" makes the formulation explicit:

"Au total 2 puissances principales: URSS qui ne représente pas socialisme / USA qui ne représente pas forme classique du capitalisme = ni forme libérale, ni forme impérialiste classique. Facteurs essentiels de l'histoire selon mise en perspective marxiste masqués ou déplacés par facteurs topographiques ou locaux. Et cela pendant que de part et d'autre on continue de parler marxisme et libre entreprise" (NY p. 379).

The "experience of the unknown"

MP's signature phrase: "L'expérience de l'Inconnu dans l'histoire du monde." The 1949 world is unprecedented — the marxist categorial scheme that had organized the 1917–47 period (class-vs-class, world-market, internationalism) does not apply. What is called for is attention to the new — neither nostalgic return to Marx nor liberal triumph but patience for an incarnation not yet thinkable.

The Marshall Plan and Imperium

MP's reading of the Marshall Plan (Mexico V):

"(Plan Marshall-impôt — rend possible vie de l'Europe — et le contraire) Empire anglais menacé se défend. — par mesures socialistes (travaillisme anglais) Ce qui ruine encore conscience de classe" (Mexico II p. 305).

The Marshall Plan is financed by US taxation, oriented to European recovery, and without expected profit-return. This is not classical impérialisme (capital export for profit); it is Imperium — economic-political dominance for stabilization. MP's distinction is structural: the Marshall Plan changes what "American capitalism" means. Classical marxist categories (extractive imperialism) cannot capture it.

The third path

MP's political response is not an attempted synthesis of the two camps but a refusal of the alternative:

"C'est pour ces raisons qu'on souhaite en France mouvement politique qui dépasse l'alternative en étant sans équivoque indépendant à l'égard des 2 forces, — et lié à éléments ouvriers de tous les pays" ("Marxisme et Existentialisme" p. 402).

This is the political register of the third attitude identified in Inédits I (Brussels 1946 [Complément] HT). The opposition de gauche of 1946 has become the no-man's-land position of 1949 — refusing the Stalinism/anti-communism alternative and refusing the Sartrean engagement / Aronian skepticism alternative.

Patience for incarnation

The closing formula of Mexico II:

"Attendre que l'incarnation redevienne possible" (Mexico II p. 365 in the editorial NY introduction's interpretation).

The phrase resonates Christianly (cf two-historicities on the Hegel Christianity sequence) but means here: the marxist individu de classe has been displaced; the historical conditions for its return are not yet given; the philosopher's task is to make space for what is not yet thinkable rather than substituting something else for the absent marxism.

Positions

  • MP 1947–48 (PPH): the bipolar conjuncture is the test of the individu de classe concept; the test is being failed in real time.
  • MP 1949 (Mexico): the antinomies of the political register are now constitutive of the existentialist program — politics is no longer applied phenomenology but its structural problem.
  • MP 1949 (NY): the Imperium / impérialisme distinction makes the no man's land thesis explicit; both classical marxism and classical liberalism misdescribe their referents.
  • MP 1955 (AD): the no-man's-land thesis is consolidated in the AD chapter "The Crisis of the Understanding" and "Sartre and Ultrabolshevism." The 1949 anticipation is now visible.
  • Aron: would say MP's "no man's land" is the evidence that there is no philosophy of history; MP's response is that absence-of-philosophy-of-history is itself a philosophical determination of the conjuncture, not its disappearance.

Connections

  • systematized in Adventures of the Dialectic (1955) — the chapters on Lukács, Weber, Sartre's "ultrabolshevism," and the new liberalism develop what is here in compressed form.
  • tests individu-de-classe — the 1949 conjuncture is the conjuncture in which the individu de classe concept is suspended: the marxist positive function (proletarian historical mission) is suspended; only the negative function (eliminating impossibilities) remains operative.
  • extends pente-de-l-histoire and logique-de-fait — the 1946 articulations are now negative in the 1949 register: pente exists but its direction is uncertain; logique de fait eliminates impossibilities but cannot positively orient.
  • contrasts with the ultrabolshevism thesis of AD — Sartre's response to the same 1949 conjuncture is voluntarist hyper-marxism; MP's response is no-man's-land patience.
  • contains the 1949 anticipation of new-liberalism (if exists in wiki) — the analysis of US imperium as not-classical-capitalism is the 1949 anticipation.
  • cf changement-quantite-qualite — the no man's land is the structural consequence of the degeneration thesis: stalinism's change of quantity into quality has produced neither socialism nor classical capitalism on the USSR side.

Open Questions

  • Is "no man's land" MP's coinage or a contemporary commonplace? The phrase is in Mexico II ("Programme minimum et plate forme étrangère à ces 2") but the formula "Au total 2 puissances..." is MP's. The Imperium / impérialisme distinction may be MP's.
  • The "patience for incarnation" formula is striking but its theological resonance is undeveloped. Does MP intend the Christian register seriously (as in the PPH p. 144 "Hegel-as-Christianity-secularized" thesis) or merely figuratively?
  • What is the structural difference between the 1949 no-man's-land and the 1955 AD "new liberalism"? AD is more developed analytically (Lukács, Weber are read in detail), but the 1949 NY Pensée politique outline is already remarkably close.
  • The Marshall Plan analysis (Imperium / impérialisme distinction) is structurally important but compressed. Does it recur in AD with the same emphasis, or does AD fold it into the broader new-liberalism diagnosis?

Sources

  • merleau-ponty-2022-inedits-ii-1947-1949 — PPH [Aron] segment (PPH p. 192); Mexico II "Antinomie de la vie collective" (pp. 303–306); Mexico III "Antinomie de l'esprit et de la politique" (pp. 333–339); NY "La pensée politique et l'expérience du XXᵉ siècle" (pp. 376–386); "Marxisme et Existentialisme" (pp. 401–402); "La signification de l'existentialisme français" (pp. 403–407).
  • merleau-ponty-1955-adventures-of-the-dialectic — the systematized form of the 1949 diagnosis.